Volume LXI, Issue 23
The Tech Issue
Monday, March 26, 2018
sbstatesman.com
Page 7
USG debate draws tiny audience
Snow delay frustrates students
By Aleeza Kazmi
By Rebecca Liebson
Assistant Multimedia Editor
The Undergraduate Student Government at Stony Brook University held a candidates debate in the Student Activities Center Ballroom B Tuesday evening ahead of its election next week. USG represents more than 16,000 students according to its website, but only a little over a dozen students attended the event. The debate, which was also livestreamed on USG’s Facebook page, gave the candidates running for executive board positions a chance to inform the student body on their platforms. The executive board consists of a president, treasurer, executive vice president, VP of communications, VP of student life, VP of clubs and organizations and VP of academic affairs. This year, four of the seven executive board positions have uncontested candidates, compared to one uncontested race in last year’s election. “It is unfortunate that this year’s candidate pool is a lot smaller than previous years,” assistant to the Vice President of Communications, Kyriaki Sideris, stated via email. “However, the Executive Council does not foresee the candidate pool effecting the potential success of the following [academic year executive council].”
News Editor
LUIS RUIZ DOMINGUEZ / THE STATESMAN
Candidates for Undergraduate Student Government offices debate each other in Student Activities Center Ballroom B. Around a dozen students attended. USG election board member, William Eddy, said that engagement in USG is cyclical. “Every couple of years you get really big surges of people who run for the elections, then it starts to die down after that because there are the [incumbents], and people get intimidated by that,” Eddy said. The only executive candidate running as an incumbent this year is Vice President of Academic Affairs, Nicole Olakkengil. She is running unopposed. During the debate, several candidates discussed how they would improve communication between USG and the student body. “Not many are very notified of what exactly USG does,” candidate
for vice president of communications, Bansri Shah, said. “Because the students pay so many fees for us to have better campus life, I think it is really important for students to know what they are paying for.” Neesan Haider, a junior biology major who attended the debate, said she went to find out what specific plans the candidates had for improving transparency. “I believe the VP of clubs and orgs candidates talked about increasing awareness about different USG workshops that take place,” Haider said. “Things like this could really help. USG has done a lot but definitely could do a better job in promoting their resources.”
The candidates mostly focused on explaining their platforms rather than attacking their opponents during the debate. But one moment that garnered a reaction came from current Vice President of Student Life, Jaliel Amador, who questioned the fashion choice of presidential candidate Meelod Wafajow. “Both of you said you were both aware of boards that you have to be appointed to if you became president, the fact that you are the leader of the executive council, the fact that you are the liaison to almost every department on campus when it comes to anything that’s USG,” Amador said. “You are the face, you are Continued on page 4
University Police Department holds active shooter drills By Christian Wornell Contributing Writer
Stony Brook University is taking measures to prepare students for an active shooter situation following last month’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The Stony Brook University Police Department (UPD) and Department of Residential Risk Management held the first of three active shooter trainings this semester on Thursday, March 1. “I didn’t realize that they were doing this program, and because of the recent events I thought that I should come out and see what I should do if anything like that were to happen here,” freshman mechanical engineering major Thea Vijaya Kumar said. Continued on page 4
NINA LIN / THE STATESMAN
Two University Police Department (UPD) officers standing next to a UPD police car. UPD is holding several drills to prepare students for an active shooter situation.
Stony Brook students hoping for a second snow day this week were met with disappointment after the school announced a delay on Thursday. “Good morning SB,” the Stony Brook University Emergency Management (SBUEM) Twitter account tweeted at 4:42 that morning. “All classes that begin prior to 10am are canceled. All classes that begin at or after 10am are being held as scheduled. Clinical rotation questions should be directed to clinical coordinators.” The tweet received 160 replies, most of which were from angry commuter students expressing their frustration with the decision. One of these students was senior mathematics major Khalid Urysohn. In order to make it to class for a midterm, Urysohn spent an hour digging out his car from the snow and then drove from Massapequa on slippery roads. “It was not safe to drive and the whole way I was disappointed they would force me to drive though that,” he wrote in an email. “I don’t think Stony Brook takes into account its commuters who live far away and they completely dropped the ball on this one.” Others, such as Twitter user ZhengGong6, shared pictures of unplowed roads and snowed-in cars to demonstrate the difficulties they would face in their commute. The SBUEM account tweeted out its own photoset with pictures showing that most of the major roads had been cleared. This tweet provoked responses from several more commuters, including sophomore biochemistry major Jillian Brauer. “This doesn’t account for individual neighborhoods and time it takes to shovel 2 feet of snow to get to a 10am class. It also doesn’t account for delays on the LIRR and communities that are not plowed by the town and have to wait for a private company to plow,” she tweeted. In a reply to Brauer’s tweet, SBUEM stated it was acting in the best interests of the whole campus, not just the commuter students. “We understand that people travel to Campus from a variety of locations. The LIRR is on or close to schedule. 11,000 students live on campus. Decisions to travel should be based on the individuals circumstances, we are a Campus of more than 50k people.”